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Torex Gold Resources Inc.

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September 16, 2024 at 10:20 AM (MDT)|Broadmoor Hotel & Resort

Jody Kuzenko

President & CEO

Jody Kuzenko was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of Torex Gold in June 2020, having previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer since joining the Company in October 2018. She is a senior mining executive with over 25 years of operational and business experience, mainly acquired at Vale (formerly Inco). After the first four years at Inco as Chief Legal Officer, Jody moved to the operational side of the business where she held roles of increasing responsibility in operations management. She has a proven record of execution and leadership in many areas of mining operations including refining, strategy, safety, health and environment, energy and utilities, and community, labour and government relations. Jody holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario, an Honours Bachelor of Arts from McMaster University, and is a Certified Director from the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program.

Jody serves as a Director of Torex Gold, The Mosaic Company, and the World Gold Council. She also sits on the Canadian Council of Women CEOs and is a founding Advisory Board member of the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) at Laurentian University. Previous Board experience includes the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario and Industrial Gas Users Association, Canada. In 2020, she was named one of the ‘Top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining’ by Women in Mining UK as well as one of the ‘2020 Names to Know’ by CIM Magazine.

This is an automatically generated transcript. Denver Gold Group cannot accept responsibility for mistakes, errors, omissions, or any action taken in reliance thereon. Use of this transcript is governed by Denver Gold Group’s Terms of Use.

Ok. Ok. Yeah. Ok. Yeah. Ok. Well, thank you again, ladies and gentlemen. The next speaker is from Torre Gold Resources. It's Jody Kenko, she's the president and CEO and rather than me giving her bio, which I'm sure is very actually impressive. I will let her go ahead and speak to Tox as, as we go ahead. Alright, thank you. I got Lapel makes some not stand and a podium I can't see over. my screen isn't working. So if I'm looking back here, that's why tour is an intermediate gold producer. Soon to be a gold and copper producer as we bring on metal luna trading today at 0.7 price to nab market cap of about $2 billion. Canadian. It's an asset of significant size and scale. Last year we produced 454,000 ounces of gold making us the largest gold producer in all of Mexico. You can see where we're located there on the map in a place called Guerrero State in the southwest of the country. And you can see in the inlay what the footprint looks like we own. 20 9000 hectares in the Guerrero Gold Belt, right smack in the middle of a geologically prolific area of the country. We have the Limo WJZ mine which consists of open pit production and an underground mine operating since 2016. You can see that to the blob of the north of the Balsas River and we have a project $950 million build called Medal Luna to the South. That's very late stage. We're scheduled to produce first copper concentrate from that project. By the end of this calendar year, you can see there in the third line, we have a large and growing resource space. We have now produced over 3.5 million ounces of gold and still 10 million ounces remaining in the resource space. And you can see at the bottom healthy margins and a strong balance sheet. Our ASIC is in about the $1200 range and the balance sheet here is an important point. As at the end of quarter two, we had $346 million in available liquidity just over 100 mil of that sat in cash and that's an important number because as we think about the conclusion of Met Luna, we have $224 million left to spend. That was as at Midyear, we're further along now so that you can see that we're all set up to the final funding in the finish line of Metal Luna. And here's an important point. A company our size $2 billion we funded Medal Luna, a $950 million build from our own cash flow. We produced the gold to generate the cash to pay for our future. No stream nor royalty and we protected the equity didn't do a raise. Investment highlights are here, we have a consistent track record of producing, as we say, we're going to, we have a very systems focussed operation and maintenance program and that allows us to deliver our production as planned quarter after quarter year after year, you see two comments there. The second one in the top on the right about margins and balance sheet. I touched on that already. We have an exceptional ESG foundation particularly around the areas of safety and community relations. We operate in what I would describe as a geopolitically complex place in the world. We've had to be good at those two things. As I do think we are. You can see at the bottom plenty of prospect. Deity left 10 million ounces in the resource base and the asset remains 75% unexplored. And you can see the notation there even beyond Metia Luna. Over the last week, we released information on an internal pref feasibility study we did on a zone called EPO which will be our next mine. It will stack in over top of metal Luna so that we have 450,000 ounces ahead of us from now until 10 years from now. And we'll continue to just build on that. This is where we stand against guidance. As at this year, only a couple of points to make here, you can see in the top there 230 as at Midyear tracking nicely to deliver on production guidance. If we do that, it will be the sixth year in a row. We've achieved production guidance baked into that 400 to 450. Number is four weeks of downtime in quarter four. In order to get me a luna up and running, we have to tire copper floatation and iron sulfide floatation circuits which means we'll take the mill down for a four week period at the end of the year and then bring it back up. The mines will continue to run through that period. That is all baked into our guidance. You can see there we were slightly over on all in sustaining costs through the first half of the year. We expect those costs to come down through the back half as the open pit sunset and stripping comes off. And then the bottom reference to me Lunar Capex, we revised the final Capex number about two months ago. Originally when we did the feasibility study, it was at 875 as we're coming to the finish line, it's at 950. The overriding reason for that revision was the strength of the Mexican peso throughout the build period. It was the vast majority of the reason for the increase. You can see we're tracking nicely to the 430 to 450 on me, Aluna. This here is our five year production outlook. It's one of my favorite slides in the deck because beyond all of the numbers, it really speaks to the brand of Tox. We strike a plan we execute on the plan and then we make a new and improved plan. So what you're looking at here is how the outlook has evolved from 2021 to the updated outlook we put in once we bolted on on EPO. Give you a couple of examples here of how the new planning has helped us. Just as recently as 2021 in this year, we thought we were gonna produce maybe 300 to 350,000 ounces. I just went over guidance with you for this year. We are comfortably sitting at between four and 450 you can see there in 2028 the impact pack of bolting on epo that extra 1600 tons a day at about 5 g a ton gold equivalent took us from 337 in the technical report all the way to 450 to 500. So feeling quite comfortable that we can confidently say will produce 450 to 500,000 ounces from now until 10 years from now. This is our strategy. Don't be misled by the simplicity of it. There is a lot of detail under each of these pillars, but this is how we line up the organization we're working inside each of these pillars have been for the last 3.5 years. Deliver Metia Luna to full production. We got to get it on by the end of this year or early next year and then ramp it up to 7500 tons a day, integrate and optimize morelos layer in epo keep Metia Luna running. We want to keep that mill full and making as much money as possible, grow reserves and resources. We put out a fiveyear exploration strategy a couple of months ago. So we will continue to invest in the drill bit discipline, growth and capital allocation. A very conservative. And I would argue impressive balance sheet, particularly coming out of the Me Luna build talent, I think is on the agenda of every CEO at this conference and build on ESG excellence. So really for the rest of this time, I'll take you through each of those pillars quite quickly snapshot of where we were on Metia Luna. As at the end of quarter two, essentially 80% complete and 97% committed. So all of the engineering is behind us. With the exceptions of some very minor field changes as we complete, the mechanical construction and procurement is largely behind us. Apart from receiving the actual goods, we have acquired so any risks on Capex blowouts or anything like that are behind us. We do have ahead of us underground development construction to complete and service construction. As we complete the copper and iron floatation circuits and change our tail length configuration. You could see some details of what's been completed. The interesting thing about the Luna project. It sits seven kilometers away from existing infrastructure as the crow flies, two giant mountains divided by a river. How we decided to get there in the feasibility study was tunnel under the river that's called the Juarez tunnel $111 million touch on capital. We will convey or in waste back from Met Aluna to our existing process plant infrastructure. The decision to tunnel is an example of how strategic we were thinking. When we decided to build me a luna, we oversized the conveyor so that we can bring on deposits. On the South side. We oversized power and we oversized permitting on water. We oversized the past plant and I'll take you through. Why? That is? It really is about the prospect that we saw on the South side, integrate and optimize Morelos. Here was the foundation that we were working from. This is the technical report we put out at the end of Q one in 2022 when we announced Metia Luna, here was the production plan. You can see that we had dealt with what was the concern at the time the dipper gap in production between elg Pitts, sunsetting and met a luna coming on. We've now done that. We will produce 404 and 50,000 ounces through this transition period. The next challenge was that 27 to 28 period where you see it started to drip off on the reserve case, what do we do? We went looking for additional ounces in the open pits. We were able to find north of 200,000 ounces there to see us through that transition period. We continue to invest in drilling at Elg underground. That's the underground deposit to the north of the river. We've been able to extend reserve life and add to the resource base there and then bring Epo into the mine plan. You can see here, this is a feed sources chart. It doesn't talk about relative contribution. Just what's coming on when Elg open pits sunset about mid 2025 elg underground. We have the reserve case now out past 2028 at 2000 tons a day and we believe that just keeps going. It's the kind of asset. Well, you're minor year, add a year, minor year at two years and we believe that pattern will continue. You see metal luna there and the gold coming on at the end of this year. And now we've added EPO. The plan for Epo is coming up in a couple of slides, but essentially, we'll start development there through the middle of the year next year and expect to be in production by year end 26. You see it coming on there. And if and as we have any room left in the mill during any of these periods, we have 5.5 million tons on stockpile, grading 1.2 g a ton gold equivalent. We'll just feather that in to keep the mill full and keep cash coming. Here's the plan view of EPO. This came out in our investor day a week or so ago. See the adjacency to Medal Luna. And that whe tunnel that I talked about a 650 m access ramp off the whe tunnel, a one kilometer drift back into Medal Luna and that gets us developed. Paying this mine this extra 1600 tons per day for $80 million was the PFS estimate we'll just use all of the met Aluna ore and waste handling system. Use the backfill system that's already been designed and use the whe tunnel to process the material through the existing process plant. What does Epo do for us? Remember that dip in 27 that cures it up the yellow line. There is what we were working up in the technical report and this is the reserve case you can see there, we have gold equivalent ounces in production at above 450 through to 2030. And if we add in just some conservative conversion from resource to reserve presumptively. We've got a good history of doing that. You can see we're full through to 2033. So feeling pretty good about having that mine life ahead of us at spot prices. This production profile will generate about $400 million of free cash a year, not IBDA free cash. And so with that kind of money, a lot of opportunities will be opened up to us. This is the third pillar, grow reserves and resources. You can see a plan here, a plan view of our 29,000 hectares three short years ago, this looked like Elg and Met a Luna. You can see with three years of 30 to $35 million of investment. A lot of new and interesting targets have opened up and you can see what's of interest to us there on the south side of the river. And the logic behind making that investment in the wha tunnel highly prospective. I believe many of those deposits will come on in the next 56 and seven years, smaller deposits. Again, 2000 tons a day in that range in production will just layer in over top of Metia, Luna and Epo this I call the triangle of happiness really and again, this is the function of our five year exploration strategy and really bolstering our exploration team. You can see that much like we handle our operating business. We've systematized target selection and target identification and moving potential deposits up into resource de delineation and reserve definition. We want to ensure that we're spending good value for dollar on assets that are, are, are are actually going to turn cash discipline growth and capital allocation. This is just a snapshot of the balance sheet profile. 345 and available liquidity 224 left to spend on Metia Luna. We have our own objective of keeping $100 million on the balance sheet just really sleep at night. And you can see the gold bar at the end there $250 million of free cash flow generated from elg over this period prior to spending on Metal Luna that will keep the engine running as we're finalizing med Aluna and ramping up that mine talent. You can see that we hire a good portion of people from our local communities that keeps us insulated to some degree from many kinds of blockade activity. We hire women and this is on Bill Ds G Excellence. We have a sustainability linked loan really giving us a lower cost of capital for sustainability related work we were already doing anyways, we have a credible carbon plan and we actually are a significant economic contributor to the state. We're in 3% of GDP of Guerrero is from our mind and you can see here on the left, something that I'm exceptionally proud of at ELG operations. We are now 17 million hours lost time. Injury free. Prior to that, we hit 10 million hours, lost time, injury free twice in the last four years. And I think a company that's run really well on safety, those results tend to translate into production and costs. You can see the red.in August of this year on the Metal Luna project, we had a contractor fatality, a really good reminder for us to stay,, wary and vigilant on safety relative valuation. We've had a good run this year. We're up 80% year to date. Some people are saying they missed it. I don't think so. I think the runs ahead of us with the catalysts we have coming and you can see just about across any metric. We're still attractively valued as relates to peers on near term consensus. And here's the wrap slide. You can see along the left near term value creation. Really what we have here is five years worth of work coming into a catalyst rich. 12 months, bring me Medal Luna into full production. Late this year, start producing copper con ramp up that 7500 ton a day mine 327 fund, the development of Metia Luna through elg cash flow. I've made that point. I would underscore it. It really is a remarkable thing for a company our size, complete the internal pfs on developing Epo and feathering that into the mill starting in 2027 and transition to positive free cash flow in mid 25 this really heavy Capex period is about to be behind us and middle of the year next year will start to be in free cash flow generation again. In the long term, the look is to maintain annual production between 4 5500 beyond 2030. That's what that exploration plan is now about. We're looking for the next met a luna up that right hand side, probably in that at Scala Corridor, the potential return of capital to shareholders. We've had shareholders who have been with us for a very long period of time as we return to free cash flow positive and are generating $400 million a year. It is time for money to go back to them. And then the last point we're on the press of growth. I think it is time to really consider MN A the house is in order we've got a long term life in front of us. We've got free cash flow coming. We believe we're in for a rerate over the next year. So we'll have paper and cash from which to responsibly grow the business. That's the tox story. Thank you for listening. I'm happy to take any questions from the audience. We have one minute for questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand so that a microphone can be brought forward to you. Sure. Hi Jody on Growth. Can you talk a bit about your M and A criteria. and also on growth, you did mention that some of the infrastructure has been oversized. How do you think about the trade off between my life extensions and expansion of the plant? Yeah, so those are two very different questions in terms of organic growth at Morelos. I believe that probably in 27 or 28 we'll be in one of those strategic decision making moments where we have to decide whether to upsize the mill from 10 6 to something higher, given what we see in prospect activity on the south side or add to the end of my life from where I sit today, I think it's more likely that will add to the end of my life. What we're building here is a cornerstone asset. I want something that's going to be there for a very long period of time, generating cash with a good degree of certainty in terms of M and a criteria. We're just about out of time here. I would say North South Corridor, Canada, the United States, Mexico, some areas in Latin America, Louis Pierre just identified some that are of interest and quite mining friendly and in terms of stage of the asset, definitely we'll add some early stage exploration plays to the pipeline. I think those are coming in on the cheap. We could probably pick some of those up with cash and then we are, it'll be between whether we do an Moe type transaction partner up with another producing asset or buy the next one to build it. And that does take us to completely to the end of time. Please join me in thanking Jody for the.


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